Who analyses the opposition batsmen for Pakistan?

[Junaids]

Naseem Shah's recent comments about not knowing any England batsman apart from Joe Root have me a little bit alarmed.

We all know that Waqar Younis was a supremely fit bowler who never analysed or researched opposition batsmen at all, and bowled the same way to all of them.

Waqar relied upon pace and late inswing (and late in his career a leg-cutter with the new ball) but could never tell you which batsmen played mainly on the legside or offside or front foot or back foot. It's just not how his brain works.

Early in Waqar's career, Imran Khan would stand at mid-off and tell him which type of ball to bowl next. He carried over those ideas into his domestic career with Surrey: you could see him bowling fairly set sequences of deliveries. A typical Waqar over went FULL / FULL / BOUNCER / YORKER / FULL / FULL, and only the sequence varied.

But if Naseem Shah hasn't analysed the opposition batsmen, and the bowling coach has never been capable of doing so, who is actually watching videos of the England batsmen now, today, and designing bowling and field placing plans for each of them?

 

[MMHS]

I think, more than Coach or analysts, the most important strategist/analyst in cricket is the captain, who should be n top f the game. For senior bowlers like Abbas, Yasir or Wahab, a captain might not need to intervene ball by ball (read spoon feeding ideas), but for other young/inexperienced pacers, it has to be Azhar.

This is also Azhar’s 4th (5th including WC) UK tour and he has played couple of seasons in County - he should have enough info by now to work with. Though Haris is not there, still I’ll say Azhar should leave slip cordon (Babar, Asad, Shan in cordon, Shadab/Yasir at Gully, Abid at Short leg) and stand by the bowler (s).

 

[angrypathan]

I think, more than Coach or analysts, the most important strategist/analyst in cricket is the captain, who should be n top f the game. For senior bowlers like Abbas, Yasir or Wahab, a captain might not need to intervene ball by ball (read spoon feeding ideas), but for other young/inexperienced pacers, it has to be Azhar.

This is also Azhar’s 4th (5th including WC) UK tour and he has played couple of seasons in County - he should have enough info by now to work with. Though Haris is not there, still I’ll say Azhar should leave slip cordon (Babar, Asad, Shan in cordon, Shadab/Yasir at Gully, Abid at Short leg) and stand by the bowler (s).

Even if he wasn't captain, Azhar should be nowhere near the slip cordon